In today's fast-paced economy, more and more business transactions are conducted remotely via computer or telephone networks. In-person meetings and conventional mail, the longtime standards for performing secure transactions and making payments, have given way to remote business solutions such as online banking/bill payment and voice response units for processing customer requests via automated telephone systems. However, the vast amount of confidential information transmitted over these networks and the increasing difficulty of remotely verifying the identity of a party has led to a robust online fraud community. High-tech criminals have become experts at fraudulently acquiring sensitive information, such as social security numbers, bank account numbers and PINs, credit card numbers, and Internet login credentials (i.e., usernames and passwords) for secure business applications. Successful attempts at database hacking and network decryption, as well as fraudulent data-gathering systems such as phishing and pharming sites, vishing applications, and malicious software such as Trojan horse programs and key logging programs result in thousands of cases of identity theft against customers and cost many businesses millions of dollars per year.
In one typical scenario, a fraud organization maintains a phishing or pharming web site to impersonate a legitimate online banking application. The fraud ring may then use email or other communications along with social engineering techniques to trick legitimate banking customers into logging on to the fraudulent web site, thereby providing the organization with the customer's confidential information. Once in possession of the customer's confidential data, the fraud ring may withdrawal or transfer funds, make purchases, or use this data to obtain additional sensitive data from other bank customers or from the bank itself.
Efforts to prevent fraud generally involve adding extra layers of security, such as crosschecking bank account numbers with other personal information, creating additional PIN numbers and passwords, and storing secure data in separate locations. However, these additional layers of security increase costs for businesses, create extra hassle customers, and provide even more opportunities for fraud organizations to steal data.
Another conventional technique involves the use of ‘honeytokens’ to determine if secured data has been compromised by an unauthorized party. A honeytoken refers to false information (e.g., bogus account numbers, phony email addresses) that may be embedded into a database of valid legitimate information. An organization may store honeytoken data within its own systems, and then monitor network access logs and other sources to identify any external uses of the honeytoken data. Any such use indicates to the organization that its confidential data has been compromised. Thus, conventional honeytoken solutions alert organizations that they may have been victimized by fraud, and can allow the organization to determine a level of confidence in its data integrity.
However, these conventional solutions provide no techniques for defending against fraudulent attacks, or for tracking fraud activities in order to pursue and stop fraud organizations at their source. Accordingly, there remains a need for systems and methods for fraud detection and tracking in business computing systems.